Tuesdays (or Wednesdays) with Torbee

Twenty-three years ago, almost to the day, I turned to my Badger fan buddy from Madison sitting next to me at Kinnick Stadium – where Wisconsin had just beaten Iowa 13-7 – and told him he’d better enjoy his football wins over Iowa because new Hawkeye basketball coach Steve Alford was soon to dominate Big 10 foes.

At this point the new football coach, the unheralded and deeply unpopular Kirk Ferentz, had posted a 2-18 overall and 1-12 Big 10 record replacing Hall of Famer Hayden Fry. Conventional wisdom at the time was Ferentz would be a certain short-timer, having failed to breathe life back into a moribund football program. Over in Carver, however, hope was high that bright young mind Alford would begin bringing Big 10 Championship trophies back to the hardcourt.

This memory surfaced yesterday while I was watching a beleaguered and clearly under-control-but-miffed Kirk Ferentz address a media scrum yearning for his reaction to son Brian Ferentz being ousted as offensive coordinator as of the end of the season.

Conventional wisdom was woefully wrong back then, of course. After a couple of fevered seasons, Alford flopped. Meantime, Ferentz got football up off the mat, forging a winning bowl season in 2001 followed up by an undefeated Big 10 campaign and Orange Bowl appearance in 2002. Very, very few saw that coming.

I share this story because once again, many are ready to write the ending of the Ferentz story based on speculation and projection. During Tuesday’s media conference, the man himself remained typically stoic and ambivalent about his future, saying it would be evaluated along with every other aspect of the football program only at the conclusion of this season. Of course that’s also when he wanted Brian’s fate to be determined, but interim Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz dashed that plan over the weekend.

I don’t know how deeply Kirk Ferentz is wounded by the ignominious dismissal of his under-performing offensive coordinator, though as a father myself, I can’t imagine it’s negligible. That said, he’s also been in the football coaching profession for more than a half-century, so he knows full-well most coaching tenures end with a pink slip.

Frankly, I could see this story have two vastly different endings. And which path Iowa – and Coach Ferentz – go down may be determined at least in part by how these final four Big 10 games go this season.

Over his tenure at Iowa, Ferentz has shown the ability to defy critics, rally the program and achieve unexpectedly good results in the face of adversity. It is one of his greatest attributes, in my opinion. We already mentioned the 2002 turnaround, but the 2004 Big 10 championship run is another great example. That team looked dead in the water after a 44-7 desert trouncing at the hands of Arizona State and a disheartening 30-17 thumping in Ann Arbor left the Hawkeyes 2-2. Adding literal injury to insult, that team also lost every single scholarship running back to ailments. All the cornered Ferentz did that season was reel off seven-straight wins, capture a league title and defeat the defending national champion in the Citrus Bowl.

Fast forward a few years, and once again the “Ferentz has lost it” crowd was grumbling after “fat cats” limped to back-to-back 6-7 and 6-6 records in 2006-07. Modern football had passed Kirk by – he was unwilling or unable to evolve and lead in the new era of college ball, it was said. Then Shonn Greene and a resurgent Hawkeye squad won an Outback Bowl in 2008 followed up by the program’s first BCS-level bowl win since Forest Evashevski roamed the sidelines, defeating Georgia Tech in the 2010 Orange Bowl.

2012 then saw the worst Kirk Ferentz season since 2000, a dispiriting 4-8 (2-6 Big 10) campaign that – of course – renewed the charge that modern football had passed the coach by, he was unwilling or unable to adjust to the new realities of college football, etc., etc.

I bet you remember what happened next – a run of 10 straight bowl seasons highlighted by a second undefeated Big 10 season and Rose Bowl appearance in 2015.

This is why I’m not ready to start shoveling soil on the grave of the Kirk Ferentz coaching tenure at Iowa. Now, at some point, every good run comes to an end. And it will for Kirk, maybe as soon as this coming January. However, as a semi-frequent gambler, I also know looking at past performance can be an indicator of future results.

It would not surprise me in the least if this firing/forced resignation or whatever we are calling it results in a rallying point for this year’s team. Mathematically, Iowa controls its own destiny in the Big 10 West. Win out, they go to Indianapolis. I don’t know about you, but I sure won’t be surprised if a cornered Hawkeye squad runs the table, moribund offense and all. We’ve seen this show before.

On the other hand, maybe the mid-season disruption serves as a distraction, divides the program and adds to dysfunction. That wouldn’t be a shocking outcome either.

It is shaping up to be an era-defining November to remember for the Iowa football program.

Strap in, it’s probably going to get weird. And how it resolves itself is likely to go a long way in determining whether the Ferentz era marches on past 2023 or draws to a close.

Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht and the 12 Saturdays Podcast @12Saturdays.